Abstract: There's more that is different than alike among our performance winners. They are a mix of the traditional and well-exploited new opportunities BANKS BETWEEN $100 MILLION AND $1 BILLION: Beneficial National Bank Repeat top performer's on the block. Want to buy a piece? In early April bankers casually reading of the proposed takeover of Beneficial Corp. by Household International Inc. most likely put the report down as just one more megamerger. What many didn't realize was that, wrapped up in the Beneficial bundle was one of their own-and not only one of their own, but a standout player. Last year Beneficial National Bank, Wilmington, Del., topped all three categories in ABA Banking Journal's rankings. Not only did it do it again, but it bettered its own numbers. But this is, no doubt, a bittersweet victory for Robert W. Pierce, president and CEO, and his team at the $333.6 million-assets bank. That's because, this time next year, it's likely Beneficial National Bank won't exist. not that Beneficial National is expected to suddenly forget how to do well. a matter of strategy and needs. To understand the future, you need to understand the present. Last year's article about Beneficial National compared the bank to a Swiss Army knife; it is a: * Dedicated servicing shop, administering for Beneficial Corp. the tax refund anticipation loan program it runs in cooperation with H&R Block. * Corporate serving as Beneficial Corp.'s in-house money mover and corporate cash manager. * Internet innovator, by running a special Web service that offers online loan applications and two-minute approvals. * Traditional community serving the Wilmington market with eight full-service branches. In early 1998, Beneficial National negotiated a deal with First USA (owned by Banc One) to provide banking services for the specialized credit card giant's employees. This included installation of a Beneficial ATM at First USA headquarters m Wilmington. After the merger of Beneficial Corp. into Household is complete, as is expected to happen later this year, the Beneficial National Bank charter and certain operations will be folded into Household Bank, F.S.B., the multi-billion thrift that Household owns. Beneficial National's branch system and its local loans most likely will be sold. Beneficial dissected When you strip away all the functions that are corporately related, what you have left is a $175 million-assets bank, says Pierce. a community bank purely unto itself, it is pretty attractive, he says, noting that considerable interest has been expressed in snapping up the pieces after Household absorbs what it wants. As it is, he says, the bank's credit programs, with the exception of the refund loan program, which is expected to be taken by Household, have been operating ahead of budget. And he points out that credit performance was strong in 1997 and local revenue was up by about 12%. online loan program, which relies on automated credit scoring for both approval and pricing, is going strong, according to Pierce. The credit quality of the portfolio has met our expectations, says Pierce. It's been very good More than $8 million in loans have been made through the Web site since late 1996. Besides tie-ins used since the product's launch, such as a link from H&R Block's site, Beneficial National has produced additional business by using banner advertising on other Web sites as well as buying words on certain search engines. Recently it added online credit card applications. More tires to kick Other achievements racked up in 1997: * online loan program, combined with a series of nationwide direct-mail programs built around a three-year unsecured term loan offer, pushed up consumer lending by more than one-third. * More than 14,000 new deposit accounts, representing mostly core deposits, were opened in 1997, lowering overall funding costs by about 50 basis points. …
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot